Lead singer and guitarist in folk-pop band Stornoway, Brian Briggs was working towards a PhD in ornithology at Wolfson College, Oxford when he struck up a friendship with fellow student Jon Ouin, impressed that he resembled a member of Teenage Fanclub. They decided to start writing and performing music together, and soon recruited bassist Oli Steadman and his younger brother Rob on drums. Named after a remote Scottish town on the Isle of Lewis, Stornoway's earliest singles were championed by BBC Radio Oxford presenter Tim Bearder and BBC Radio 1's Huw Stevens and the support led to them being booked to perform on Later... with Jools Holland, the first unsigned band ever to receive that honour. Snapped up by record label 4AD their first album, Beachcomber's Windowsill, was released in May 2010 to great acclaim, and the band toured extensively, playing at Glastonbury and Womad. Tales from Terra Firma, their second studio album came out in May 2013 and they are appearing at the Green Man festival on 18 August.

Cardinal Burns

A double act from London, Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns have been making us laugh since they first appeared on E4 last year. They're genius. There's a second season of their sketch show coming up too, which will be shown on Channel 4.

The Sessions

Photograph: Rex Features

A humbling film based on the true story of poet Mark O'Brien, who was paralysed from the neck down by polio when he was boy. He can't move his body but is still sensitive to touch, and quite naturally has been curious about sex for a long time. In the film, with the help of his preacher friend, he builds up the courage to act on his curiosity and hires someone who works with disabled people to help him. It's very tastefully done and has got a light-hearted element to it. The acting was incredible and I found it quite moving.

Nature's Home

Before the band took off my background was in studying birds and working as an ecologist so this RSPB magazine keeps me in touch. It's very accessible, aimed at anyone with an interest in birds, regardless of how much knowledge they have. The photography is world-class. There are lots of short, entertaining articles, and as it is published quarterly it gives you a guide to the season's wildlife, telling you what to look out for.

Man Ray

My bandmate Jon and I are very interested in photography. We both have old-school film cameras and we enjoy looking at Man Ray's portraits, which show how he tried to capture the personalities of artistic figures in his social circle, including Jean Cocteau and Ernest Hemingway. He also used interesting techniques, such as the sabatier effect, where the image is partly reversed, as well as surrealism.

New York Trilogy

Photograph: Rafa Rivas/AFP/Getty Images

A collection of shaggy dog detective stories by Paul Auster – three main plot lines linked by reappearing names, in some cases revealed to be imaginary beings invented by other characters. Two of the stories also feature the author himself as a shadowy presence. The unearthly narratives seem to crumble into nothing or turn on their heads as they go along, asking disturbing questions about identity and the meaning of language.

Get It On With Bryan Burnett

We've just got back from a tour in America, and our Glaswegian sound engineer tuned into this BBC Radio Scotland show via our van's Wi-Fi. It's a request show but it's got a bit of a twist because the songs chosen need to have a theme. The one I enjoyed most was about birds, which we listened to when we were driving through the forests of Oregon. It featured an amazingly diverse mix of music. I'll be listening to it again.